My finance view

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Listening to the debate in Washington, you’d think the nation was absorbed by the compelling saga of deficit reduction. You’d get the impression that in households across America, parents put their children to bed and then stay up half the night sifting through piles of think-tank reports on the kitchen table, trying to calculate whether there will be enough in the Social Security trust fund to pay benefits beyond 2037.

And you’d be wrong. Those parents are looking at a pile of bills on the kitchen table, trying to decide which ones have to be paid now and which can slide. The question isn’t how to manage health care or retirement costs two decades from now. It’s how the family can make it to the end of the month.”

The World Bank said it may take five years for Japan to rebuild after this month’s earthquake and tsunami, which killed at least 8,450 and destroyed thousands of buildings.

“If history is any guide, real gross domestic product growth will be negatively affected through mid-2011,” the Washington-based lender’s staff said in a report today. “Growth should though pick up in subsequent quarters as reconstruction efforts, which could last five years, accelerate.”

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s government plans to compile a supplementary budget to pay for reconstruction, which the finance minister said is unlikely to be unveiled by month- end. The central bank last week injected record one-day liquidity to maintain stability in the nation’s money markets, and authorities also led coordinated sales of yen with Group of Seven counterparts on March 18.

World Bank staff cited private estimates for the damage wrought that range from $122 billion to $235 billion. The damper on the economy will have a “modest short-term impact on the region,” with trade and investment flows disrupted, according to the report. The automotive and electronics industries are likely to be most affected, it added.

Bond Yields

The World Bank said that the 1995 Kobe earthquake and its aftermath may help gauge events following the March 11 magnitude-9 temblor and the ensuing tsunami. Liquidity injections by the Bank of Japan and appreciation in the yen, as traders abandon the so-called carry trade amid speculation overseas funds will be repatriated for reconstruction, are “combining to create downward pressure on bond yields,” according to the report.

The carry trade refers to investors borrowing in yen and shifting the funds into higher-yielding currencies. Japan’s benchmark government bond yields are the world’s lowest.

The yen appreciated to 76.36 per dollar on March 17, surpassing its post-World War II peak of 79.75 reached in April 1995. Yields on benchmark 10-year bonds touched a two-month low last week as the central bank said it will buy more government debt to lower borrowing costs.

“A temporary growth slowdown in Japan will have a modest short-term impact on the region,” according to the World Bank report. “Disruption to production networks, especially in automotive and electronics industries, could continue to pose problems. At this stage, it is unclear how the disaster will affect Japanese outward foreign direct investment, but it may dent the pace of overseas investment as the country’s focus turns inward on reconstruction.”

Global Impact

The impact of Japan’s strongest earthquake on record may hurt global economic growth, Singapore’s Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in the city-state today.

Japan’s financial systems are functioning without disruption and the impact of this month’s earthquake may not be as big as imagined, Naoko Ishii, the country’s deputy vice minister of finance for international affairs, said in a conference in Singapore today. Japan is “deeply committed” to its international financing programs, she said.

“The actual damage to the actual economic activities in the region is severe,” Ishii said. “When it comes to the overall economic impact of Japan, however, it may not be as large as we imagined. GDP share of the three most-affected regions is 4 percent of the Japanese total GDP and that region is not necessarily sitting in the industrial heartland.”

Fragile Sentiment

Police said more than 8,400 people died and about 13,000 are still missing after the disaster, which triggered a nuclear crisis in Japan.

Reconstruction activities will offset the effects of the March 11 temblor, Ishii said. Business and consumer sentiment is understandably fragile, as the threat of radiation leak from a damaged nuclear plant could affect the way of life, she said guaranteed high risk personal loans.

“Private insurers are likely to bear a relatively small portion of the cost, leaving a substantial part to be borne by households and the government,” World Bank staff said in the report. The cost to the insurers range from $14 billion to $33 billion, they said, citing an estimate by AIR World.

A power shortage after the quake forced companies such as Sony Corp. (6758) and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) to halt production. South Korean firms are facing higher prices for memory chips, in part because Japan accounts for up to 36 percent of global production and that production is now disrupted, while Thai exporters of cars report that current supplies of components imported from Japan will last through April, the World Bank said.

Debt Costs

A rising yen may increase debt-servicing costs for East Asian nations, the lender said in the report, adding that about one-quarter of developing East Asia’s long-term debt is denominated in the Japanese currency, ranging from about 8 percent in China to about 60 percent in Thailand.

“A one percent appreciation in the Japanese yen translates into a $250 million increase in annual debt servicing on yen- denominated liabilities held by East Asia’s developing countries,” the lender said.

Developing East Asia, which excludes Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and India, will expand 8.2 percent this year, World Bank staff said in the semiannual East Asia and Pacific Economic Update report today. The region grew 9.6 percent in 2010, it estimated.

Policy makers across the East Asian region need to tighten monetary policy to keep inflation expectations from escalating, according to the report. Governments should also let their discretionary fiscal stimulus packages lapse, it said.

Monetary Policy

Asian central banks from China to Thailand and South Korea have raised interest rates this year as a jump in crude oil prices escalates the danger of inflation in a region that’s led the global economic rebound. Policy makers are juggling containing inflation and protecting growth as higher energy prices reduce consumers’ purchasing power and increase the costs of doing business.

“Evidence that price shocks are not temporary is now plentiful,” the World Bank staff said in the report. “Inflation has become the key short-run challenge for the authorities in the region, complicated by a surge in portfolio capital inflows and rapidly increasing food and commodity prices. Price shocks are affecting core inflation that could trigger a wage-price spiral.”

Some Asian currencies and stock markets have surged in the past year as the U.S. Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing helped spur investments into the region’s assets, forcing policy makers to battle capital flows that risk creating asset bubbles.

“Currency appreciation — especially with the pause since late 2010 — has not hampered the recovery, although exporters’ margins have been affected,” the World Bank said. “Exchange market intervention has limited the extent to which nominal exchange rates across the region have strengthened, but that has been largely offset by higher inflation.”

Source

Cisco Systems Inc., the world’s largest maker of computer networking gear, on Friday said its first-ever cash dividend will amount to 6 cents per share and will be paid on April 20.

The company has said since last year that it would start paying a dividend equating to an annual yield of 1 percent to 2 percent, but had not specified the amount or precise timing.

The dividend amounts to an annual yield of 1.4 percent at Thursday’s closing price of $17. The shares hit a 52-week low of $16.97 in Thursday trading.

In afternoon trading Friday, the shares were up 15 cents to $17.15.

The dividend will be paid to shareholders of record as of March 31.

Technology companies like to hold on to their cash, investing it in their own growth rather than paying dividends. But several of them have started paying small dividends as they find their business maturing. Microsoft Corp. introduced a dividend in 2003 and now carries a 2.6 percent annual yield. Hewlett-Packard Co., which competes with Cisco in many fields, has a yield of 0.8 percent.

Among the holdouts that don’t pay a dividend are Apple Inc., Dell Inc. and eBay Inc.

San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco said its “leadership position in the markets we serve is strong,” making this the time to reward shareholders.

The dividend amounts to $1.3 billion annually. Cisco has already been transferring cash to shareholders through stock buybacks, at a rate of about $8 billion per year, according to analyst Brian White at Ticonderoga Securities. Most recently, Cisco authorized a $10 billion buyback program in November.

Cisco had $40.2 billion in cash in February, but only $3.1 billion of that was in the U.S. The rest sits at overseas subsidiaries.

Cisco has been reluctant to repatriate that money, because it will then be taxed at the 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate. It’s lobbying Washington for a tax amnesty on overseas earnings, and CEO John Chambers has linked that effort to the size of the dividend.

White said buybacks at the current rate plus the dividend will cost Cisco $6.5 billion to $7 billion more than its U.S. business generates in cash flow. Absent a tax amnesty, Cisco might have to repatriate money at the higher tax rate, borrow money or reduce its buybacks, White said.

Source

Japanese stocks rebounded Wednesday, recovering some of the massive losses sustained over the last two days following a devastating earthquake and tsunami. Markets around the world also bounced back even as the human and economic toll from the disasters, including an escalating nuclear crisis, remained unclear.

Oil prices rose above $98 a barrel as fears that clashes in Bahrain and Libya could further disrupt crude supplies outweighed concern Japan’s crises will crimp demand. In currencies, the dollar was little against the yen and up against the euro.

In early trading, European shares and U.S. futures carefully gathered momentum after a strong day in Asia.

Germany’s DAX rose 0.9 percent to 6,704.84 and France’s CAC-40 rose 0.2 percent to 3,788.21. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up narrowly at 5,698.33. Meanwhile, Wall Street was preparing for gains ahead of the opening bell. Dow Jones industrial futures rose 0.2 percent to 11,810, and S&P 500 futures were 0.2 percent higher to 1,278.20.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index briefly surged more than 6 percent Wednesday. It softened slightly after Japan temporarily suspended operations to prevent a stricken nuclear plant from melting down after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous for workers to remain at the facility. The workers had been dousing reactors at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex with seawater in a frantic effort to cool them.

“It is very early days for calculation of any impact on the economy and the stock and bond markets,” according to Sarah Williams, head of Japanese equities at London-based Threadneedle, which manages about $65 billion in assets. “Until the safety of these plants is assured, investors will remain cautious.”

The Nikkei closed up 5.7 percent at 9,093.72 as investors snapped up bargains after a panic selling sent the index spiraling down nearly 11 percent the day before. The Nikkei on Tuesday closed at its lowest level in almost two years after shedding more than 1,600 points, or 16 percent, over two days.

The plunge prompted Tokyo Stock Exchange President Atsushi Saito to release a statement calling for calm. He noted that foreign investors were net buyers the last two days.

“I also believe that Japan’s experience, knowledge and technologies in the area of recovering from earthquakes should not be underestimated and that the stock market will calm down soon,” Saito said.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan conducted emergency operations for the third day in a row, bringing its total liquidity injection to 55.6 trillion yen ($688.3 billion) since Monday.

That helped banking shares perk up: Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the country’s biggest bank, was up 2.2 percent, and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. gained 5.4 percent.

Japan’s powerhouse exporters also caught their breath after suffering staggering losses. Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s No. 1 auto maker, shot up 9.1 percent, Sony Corp. rose 8.8 percent, and truck-maker Isuzu Motors was 10.5 percent higher.

Heavy industry shares rose as the shock of the disaster gave way to thoughts of rebuilding payday loans. Kobe Steel soared 15 percent, and Nishimatsu Construction Co. Ltd. jumped 5.8 percent higher.

Markets elsewhere in Asia advanced. South Korea’s Kospi added 1.8 percent to 1,957.97. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.1 percent to 22,700.88. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7 percent to 4,558.20.

Mainland Chinese stocks rose Wednesday as traders shopped for good deals.

The Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.2 percent to 2,930.80 while the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.1 percent to 1,307.96. Gains were led by nonferrous mental and rare earth companies due to huge anticipated demands once rebuilding gets under way in Japan.

“The market will be unstable in the short term and it will relate to the nuclear leak in Japan,” said Liu Kan, an analyst at Guoyuan Securities in Shanghai.

Shares in home appliances also gained after Sony, Panasonic, Canon and Nikon closed some factories in Japan. Sichuan Changhong Electric Co. Ltd. hit the daily limit after rising 10 percent.

Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore and New Zealand were also higher.

However, markets in Indonesia and the Philippines _ which count on Japan for a relatively large share of their exports _ were down. Vietnam and Malaysia also slumped.

Taiwan’s TAIEX index recovered some lost ground _ up 1.1 percent _ after losing 3.4 percent Tuesday. But the index’s near-term outlook remained shaky due to extensive trade ties between Taipei and Tokyo.

“Taiwan’s trade exposure to Japan is among the highest in the Asia region,” DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore said in a report.

The nuclear crisis overtook financial markets around the world Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 137.74 points, or 1.1 percent, at 11,855.42. The broader S&P fell 14.52 points to 1,281.87.

Investors sold stocks primarily because of fear that the disaster in Japan would slow down the global economy. Japan is the world’s third-largest economy, manufacturing goods from computer chips to automobiles, and buys 10 percent of U.S. exports.

In currencies, the dollar was unchanged against the yen from Tuesday, at 80.83. The euro fell to $1.3964 from $1.40 late Tuesday.

The dollar had fallen against the Japanese currency in the aftermath of the earthquake as investors bet that Japanese investors would close down overseas bets and bring their money home.

Demand for the yen may keep up as Japan seeks to fund the country’s rebuilding. After a huge Japanese earthquake in 1995, the yen gained about 20 percent against the dollar in three months.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up $1.32 at $98.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract tumbled $4 to $97.18 on Tuesday as the prospect of falling oil demand from Japan sent crude prices down.

Source

Newspapers are proving so resilient that the term

Job openings fell for the second straight month in December, a sign that hiring is still weak even as the economy is gaining strength.

The Labor Department says employers advertised nearly 3.1 million jobs that month, a drop of almost 140,000 from November. That’s the lowest total since September.

Openings have risen by more than 700,000 since they bottomed out in July 2009, one month after the recession ended. That’s an increase of 31 percent.

But they are still far below the 4.4 million available jobs that were advertised in December 2007, when the recession began.

Job openings dropped sharply in professional and business services, a category that includes temporary help agencies. They also fell in construction, manufacturing, and in education and health services.

Source

Australia’s economy will expand more than previously forecast this year as flood rebuilding accelerates in the second half, tightening the labor market and putting pressure on wages, the central bank said.

“The recent floods will have a material effect on the near-term profile of gross domestic product, with growth in the December and March quarters notably lower,” the Reserve Bank of Australia said in a quarterly report in Sydney today. That will be followed by “a strong recovery in the June quarter as coal production picks up and the rebuilding effort gets under way.”

The RBA raised its forecast for 2011 growth to 4.25 percent, from a November prediction of 3.75 percent. Consumer prices will rise 3 percent, from a previous estimate of 2.75 percent, it said. The nation’s currency surged to a one-month high as investors raised bets the central bank, which has left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4.75 percent for the past two meetings, will resume increasing borrowing costs.

“It’s unequivocally hawkish,” said Adam Carr, a senior economist at ICAP Australia Ltd. in Sydney, who expects the RBA to boost borrowing costs by May at the latest. “These guys don’t want to leave rates low for long.”

Today’s forecasts reflect an economy where surging shipments of iron ore and coal to China are increasing demand for workers, while a stronger currency lowers import prices and consumer spending weakens after seven interest-rate increases from October 2009 to November 2010.

Dollar Rises

The Australian dollar advanced to $1.0187 at 1:04 p.m. in Sydney, the highest since Jan. 3, from $1.0144 before the release. Swaps traders bet the central bank will raise its benchmark rate by 35 basis points over the next 12 months, up from 22 basis points two days ago, according to a Credit Suisse AG index.

During the next two years, consumer-price inflation is forecast to remain within the central bank’s target range of 2 percent to 3 percent on average, the RBA said today. The local dollar’s gains are helping contain prices, it said.

“Pressures on capacity are likely to emerge in parts of the economy as the structural adjustment to the large change in relative prices takes place,” the central bank said. “The substantial increase in the price of Australia’s exports has meant that the real exchange rate is higher than it would otherwise have been, and this is contributing to differences in growth prospects across industries.”

Rate Differential

The RBA’s 175 basis points of rate increases have driven Australia’s currency to parity with the U.S. dollar. In contrast, the U.S. Federal Reserve has kept its main interest rate near zero since December 2008. The higher Australian dollar has hurt non-resource industries.

The nation’s manufacturing recorded a fifth monthly decline in January as measures of inventories, wages and supplier deliveries declined. The building industry shrank in December for a seventh straight month.

Australian employers added 2,300 jobs in December, capping a record year of job growth with the smallest increase since February. The unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent in December, the lowest level since January 2009.

While businesses are reporting the labor market has tightened, “most are not experiencing significant difficulties in hiring employees,” the RBA said today. Still, “looking ahead, a gradual increase in wage growth is expected as the labor market tightens further,” it said.

Skill Shortage

As floodwaters recede, builders may need to compete with mining and energy companies for workers. “The labor market appears tightest for some mining-related and skilled occupations,” the RBA said.

Two coal-seam gas projects, expected to cost more than A$30 billion, are proceeding near the Queensland port of Gladstone. Santos Ltd., Australia’s third-largest oil producer, and BG Group Plc, the U.K.’s third-biggest gas producer, will start hiring the first of more than 10,000 construction workers needed for the two projects later this year.

Torrential rains in Queensland affected about 30,000 properties, shut coal mines, cut rail lines and damaged crops. Earlier this week, a cyclone slammed into the nation’s east coast.

The central bank said the inundation of Queensland is likely to cut 0.5 percentage point from GDP in 2010-2011 and add 0.25 point to inflation this quarter.

Flood Damage

The flooding, which also hit the southern state of Victoria, has also weakened business and consumer confidence, recent reports showed.

Australian business sentiment fell to the lowest level in 19 months in December, reflecting the damage to Queensland’s mining, transport, agriculture and tourism industries. Consumer confidence last month fell to the lowest since June last year on concern the floods will weaken the economy

Woolworths Ltd., Australia’s biggest retailer, cut its full-year profit forecast, citing lower consumer confidence and “uncertainty” over inflation and interest rates.

“The outlook for consumption and the timing of the pick-up in resource sector investment” are among important influences on the economic outlook, the RBA said today. “The household saving ratio is forecast to remain broadly unchanged over the forecast period, after having increased significantly since the mid-2000s.”

Source

Since 1995, the St. Louis Equal Housing Opportunity Council has focused its efforts on investigating fair housing compliance, such as fielding discrimination complaints involving landlord and tenant disputes.

But two years ago, the council suddenly found itself facing a new problem: the inability of many African-Americans to tap local financial institutions.

As the recession deepened, access to credit evaporated for many people, but low-income communities were hit particularly hard. Subprime lenders, which had heavily targeted poor neighborhoods, and informal safety nets, such as short-term loans from relatives, disappeared.

“A lot of subprime and predatory lenders had entered markets where there wasn’t a lot of competition from banks, and there was a vacuum” when those lenders left, said EHOC’s assistant director, Mira Tanna, describing the inability of people who contacted the group to get mortgages and other loans from banks.

So the nonprofit council began prodding local banks to open more branches and provide increased financial services in low-income neighborhoods, a move it believes will help “unbanked” households - those without a checking or savings account.

With the help of federal regulators, EHOC has had some success opening the dialogue with bankers about expanding services. It has also been successful in getting banks to commit to expand loan programs to minorities and in low-income areas.

“They’ve had to push me along a little bit, but I’ve learned a lot from them, and I hope they’ve learned a little about the banking industry from me,” said Rick Bagy, president of First National Bank of St. Louis.

SCRUTINIZING LOANS

The lack of access to banking services in low-income neighborhoods has been a problem plaguing St. Louis and the rest of the country for decades, said Edward Lawrence, professor of finance at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

“It’s hard to have economic development without access to financial services,” he said. “In some of these areas, there’s a lot of money not being put anywhere. They keep it at home, and that’s a waste.”

The EHOC began to tackle this problem in 2009, when it began looking closely at local banks’ loans to minorities and in low-income areas. The EHOC also brought together more than a dozen other nonprofits, creating the St. Louis Equal Housing and Community Reinvestment Alliance, to begin analyzing banks’ lending histories.

In their analysis, the alliance looked at banks’ lending history through the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which requires lending institutions to report public loan data. The EHOC’s four-member staff and the alliance members focused on the lending practices of banks up for review by federal regulators - either the Federal Reserve or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., depending on the type of bank - for compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act. The CRA was passed by Congress in 1977 to prohibit red-lining, a practice in which banks once drew lines on a map where they would open branches and offer services, often leaving out low-income areas. Banks with assets of at least $275 million are reviewed for CRA compliance every two years.

The analysis found that in many cases, the number of mortgages and other loans to minorities or in low-income areas was nonexistent or woefully low, prompting the group to file more than a dozen public comment letters with the Fed or the FDIC about banks’ lending practices.

“If we think there are deficiencies, we as a coalition will write a public comment letter to their regulators,” Tanna said.

The alliance’s efforts drew increased attention from regulators and banks after a 2009 FDIC study named St. Louis as the metro area with the highest percentage of unbanked black households in the country, at 31 percent. In contrast, only 1.1 percent of white households locally were unbanked.

Nationwide, 21 percent of black households were unbanked, while 3 percent of white households didn’t have a checking or savings account.

“The (FDIC’s) unbanked study took a lot of us by surprise,” Bagy said. “Frankly, I’m ashamed St. Louis has such a high level of unbanked people.”

OPENING TALKS

Since the study was released, the EHOC’s staff has held dozens of meetings with bank executives to persuade them to increase their investments in low-income and minority communities.

“Banks are not really going to do a lot unless you say something,” said Will Jordan, president of the EHOC. “What our hope is that once the banking community sees not just that we’re going to shine a light on them, but that they’re actually turning a profit.”

Regulators take the letters seriously. Todd Hendrickson, assistant regional director of compliance for the FDIC’s Kansas City region, which includes St. Louis, said as examiners are doing their pre-examination work, they use the information from public comment letters as a springboard for discussion with the bank about compliance with CRA.

And the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development relies on groups like EHOC, which HUD provides funding for, in assessing fair housing complaints, said Myrtle Wilson, regional fair housing director for HUD.

The alliance’s work is beginning to pay dividends. Two banks, Midwest BankCentre and First National Bank of St. Louis, each announced in recent weeks that they’ll open new branches in low-income areas.

Midwest BankCentre will open a branch this year in Pagedale in north St. Louis County, and First National Bank of St. Louis will open a branch in a yet-to-be-determined low-income area by mid-2012.

Both banks’ new branch announcements came after EHOC filed complaints with federal agencies in 2009.

Bagy met with Jordan and EHOC’s staff over the past year to try to figure out the root reasons why some people don’t use banks. First National, which has 14 branches, plans to offer $2 million in community development loans and investments in minority areas and $500,000 in discounted mortgage loans. Bagy said he has talked to several other bankers in St. Louis about the possibility of co-locating branches in a single location in a low-income area.

One other complaint EHOC filed with HUD, against Clayton-based Enterprise Bank, is pending. EHOC and Enterprise declined to comment as talks are ongoing.

Removing barriers

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis also is focusing its attention on the unbanked and underbanked in the region. Underbanked individuals are those who have a bank account but also use alternative banking services, such as payday lenders with high interest rates.

The Fed sponsored a study by Washington University in the fall to determine why some people don’t use banks and barriers to accessing bank services. The study’s results were released Friday.

Allen North, the St. Louis Fed’s vice president of Consumer Affairs, said addressing the unbanked issue involves much more than just putting branches in certain places.

The Washington U. study surveyed residents of low-income areas who don’t use banks and found that distrust in traditional banks’ fees can be a deterrent.

The study found that with payday lenders, many thought that they knew what the fees were going to be but were less certain about bank fees, North said.

Also, some banks contend the branch model is an outdated one. As more people turn to online banking, the addition of bricks and mortar locations is less of a focus for some banks.

Meanwhile, the FDIC won’t issue an update on unbanked households until 2012.

Rance Thomas, president of the North County Churches Uniting for Racial Harmony and Justice, one of the alliance’s member organizations, said it’s too early to see a marked change in unbanked households from the group’s efforts. “We hope to see some improvement in the future,” he said. “It’s a slow process.”

Source

A top Dubai fiscal official on Monday tamped down rumors the city-state was close to selling prized financial assets, including its stake in the London Stock Exchange.

The denial from the governor of the sheikdom’s international banking center was in response to an unsourced story in Britain’s Sunday Times, which reported that the emirate’s oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi was seeking to take control of core Dubai financial holdings for $1.5 billion.

Just last week Borse Dubai, the state-owned company that owns a fifth of the London exchange, halved its stake in trans-Atlantic exchange operator Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. to help cover a $2.45 billion loan coming due in February.

Dubai International Financial Center governor Ahmed al-Tayer “categorically denied” reports that the emirate had received bids for any of its other financial assets, according to a statement issued late Monday by Dubai’s media office.

It added that he “emphasized that the Borse Dubai was currently not looking to dispose of its investment” in the London Stock Exchange.

A London Stock Exchange spokeswoman declined to comment.

Earlier in the day, the new board of indebted state conglomerate Dubai World met for the first time since a shakeup of the company’s leadership last week.

The man picked as Dubai World’s new chairman in the reshuffle, Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, underscored the company’s commitment to repaying its creditors.

“Sheik Ahmed emphasized adopting a strategy that aims at optimizing Dubai World’s performance along with that of its related companies, and fortifying its financial position, which in turn will enable the company to meet its financial and contractual commitments,” a Dubai media office statement said.

The new chairman, a top aide and uncle of Dubai’s hereditary ruler, also runs the city-state’s airline Emirates.

Dubai World, whose holdings include seaports, Las Vegas real estate and high-end retailer Barneys New York, earlier this year got creditors to agree to new terms on repaying $24.9 billion of debt. Its Nakheel property subsidiary is still working on securing a similar deal for at least $10.5 billion in debt it owes.

The International Monetary Fund estimates Dubai and its many state-linked companies owe as much as $109 billion.

A number of government-linked firms have begun shedding assets to raise cash, but Dubai is reluctant to lose control of investments in core hometown industries like tourism, shipping and finance.

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Anguished relatives voiced frustration as poisonous gases prevented rescuers from entering a New Zealand coal mine Saturday, a day after a powerful blast left 29 workers missing underground.

“If I had my way I’d be down there, I’d go into the mine myself,” said Laurie Drew, whose 21-year-old son, Zen, is one of the missing men.

Rescue organizers said the level of methane and carbon monoxide was still too high to send a crew into the Pike River Mine. Two miners reached the surface after Friday’s gas explosion, but there has been no word from 29 others. Police said the miners, aged 17 to 62, are believed to be about 1.2 miles (two kilometers) down the main tunnel.

“Unfortunately it’s just not as simple as putting on a mask and gown and rushing in there,” the police search controller, superintendent Gary Knowles, told TV One. “It does pose a danger to those guys underground and … a danger to the staff going in.”

After a day of monitoring, air quality tests showed that gas levels had not dropped sufficiently and Knowles said the rescuers would remain on standby until the gases were next checked early Sunday.

He remained confident that the 16 mine employees and 13 contract miners had survived.

“This is a search and rescue operation, and we are going to bring these guys home,” Knowles said.

The blast was most likely caused by coal gas igniting, Pike River Mine Ltd. chief executive Peter Whittall said.

Electricity in the mine went out shortly before the explosion and that failure may have caused ventilation problems and contributed to a buildup of gas. The power outage continued to frustrate efforts Saturday to pump in fresh air and make it safe for rescuers, though Whittall said air was flowing freely through a compressed air line damaged in the explosion.

“We have kept those compressors going and we are pumping fresh air into the mine somewhere. It is quite conceivable there is a large number of men sitting around the end of that open pipe waiting and wondering why we are taking our time getting to them,” Whittall said.

A working phone line to the bottom of the mine, however, had rung unanswered.

The two dazed and slightly injured miners stumbled to the surface hours after the blast shot up the mine’s 354-foot (108-meter) -long ventilation shaft. The men were taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries and were being interviewed to determine what happened. Whittall said one of two men had used the phone to contact the surface before walking out.

The explosion occurred about 3:45 p.m. Friday. Video from the scene showed blackened trees and light smoke billowing from the top of the rugged mountain where the mine is located, near Atarau on South Island. It is New Zealand’s largest underground coal mine.

Families of the missing men gathered at a Red Cross hall in nearby Greymouth on Saturday, and were being briefed hourly on rescue efforts. Most have declined to talk to reporters, as have the two men who made it out of the mine.

“There is a great sense of anxiety and genuine fear, and I think that’s only natural given the … difficulty of the situation,” Prime Minister John Key told reporters after visiting the families. “We reflected to them that they have to hang on to hope. As we saw in the case of Chilean mine, 33 miners did get out alive.”

But unlike the accident in Chile, where 33 men were rescued from a gold and copper mine after being trapped a half mile (one kilometer) underground for 69 days, Pike River officials have to worry about the presence of methane, mine safety expert David Feickert said.

He added, however, that the Pike River mine has two exits, while the mine in Chile had only one access shaft that was blocked.

The coal seam at the mine is reached through a 1.4-mile (2.3-kilometer) horizontal tunnel into the mountain. The seam lies about 650 feet (200 meters) beneath the surface. According to the company’s website, the vertical ventilation shaft rises 354 feet (108 meters) from the tunnel to the surface.

Whittall said the horizontal tunnel would make any rescue easier than a steep-angled shaft.

“We’re not a deep-shafted mine so men and rescue teams can get in and out quite effectively, and they’ll be able to explore the mine quite quickly,” he said.

Each miner carried 30 minutes of oxygen, enough to reach oxygen stores in the mine that would allow them to survive for “several days,” said Pike River chairman John Dow.

Australian and British citizens were among the missing men, and Australia sent a team of mine rescue experts to assist the operation.

While Pike River Coal is a New Zealand-registered company, its majority owners are Australian. There are also Indian shareholders.

Pike River has operated since 2008, mining a seam with 58.5 million tons of coal, the largest-known deposit of hard coking coal in New Zealand, according to its website.

The mine is not far from the site of one of New Zealand’s worst mining disasters _ an underground explosion in the state-owned Strongman Mine on Jan. 19, 1967, that killed 19 workers.

New Zealand has a generally safe mining sector, with 181 people killed in 114 years. The worst disaster was in March 1896, when 65 died in a gas explosion. Friday’s explosion occurred in the same coal seam.

“The longer it drags on it doesn’t look good, does it?” said local resident Shayne Gregg, who worked at the mine last year. “It’s a feeling of hopelessness not … being able to get there, but people are aware the mining industry is hazardous and has highs and lows.”

But father Laurie Drew said he was frustrated by the lack of action from rescuers, who he said were giving excuses instead of finding solutions.

As he spoke to TV One, Drew wore his son’s jacket. “I wore it so I can give it back to him when he comes out,” he said, choking back tears. “I just want my boy home.”

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